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BAE Systems is exploring how the Eurofighter Typhoon could control uncrewed collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) as part of a broader effort to introduce new capabilities for the jet. The company is currently pursuing concepts to integrate CCAs with the Typhoon to expand ‘combat mass’ and better address emerging threat environments. Ultimately, however, the experience gained here will be ported over to the future Tempest combat jet — designed to work closely with drones from the outset.

At this point, BAE Systems is working on concepting how Typhoon/CCA could work and is also investing as a company in CCAs and crewed-uncrewed teaming more generally. The work involving the Typhoon and CCAs has accelerated over the previous 12 months. Officials from BAE Systems outlined the work so far in a briefing at the Farnborough Air Show today, just a week after the U.K. Royal Air Force launched a new CCA program, named Storm Fighter, which you can read more about here . That program should lead to a CCA that can fly into combat with the Typhoon, F-35 , and Tempest.

BAE Systems concept artwork of a Storm Fighter CCA. BAE Systems

Speaking at Farnborough, Chris Moon, Typhoon Future Capability Director, BAE Systems, explained:

“Unsurprisingly, what we’re finding is that in the enlarged battlespace of the future, we’re able have a Typhoon — some people use the phrase ‘ quarterback ,’ choose what you will — with its extensive radar capabilities at range, and speed and agility, processing, to be able to work alongside collaborative combat aircraft and increase the combat mass that is needed from our air forces into the future, and the persistence and the range at which they’re able to reach, and bring more missiles into the fight.”

The CCA capabilities are planned to be added to the Typhoon under a much wider effort known as the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) program. This is expected to roll out a number of other features that will ensure that the jet can get the most out of teaming with CCAs. These features include the large-area display (LAD) cockpit, European Common Radar System (ECRS) Mk 2, and the Striker II helmet-mounted display system.

A Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter lands at RAF Akrotiri following a mission in the Middle East. Crown Copyright

In terms of technology , the ECRS Mk 2 is especially interesting here. As well as the various advantages of an active electronically scanned array (AESA), it has a swashplate repositioner, an articulated mounting that means the antenna can be swung to face at far greater angles off the centerline. This allows a much wider field of regard, with a significant boost in angular (azimuth) coverage. It allows the Typhoon to retain missile guidance even when beaming and hiding in the Doppler notch of the enemy’s radar , which functions much like a blind spot.

A Typhoon fitted with ECRS Mk 2 radar inside an anechoic chamber. BAE Systems

In the past, Eurofighter has claimed that the repositionable array provides a field of regard that is “some 50 percent wider than traditional fixed-plate systems.”

Eurofighter

All of these components have been tested in a CCA environment in a specially equipped Typhoon simulator.

Moon highlighted one particular scenario, off the east coast of Scotland, in which a pair of Typhoons worked with a four-ship of CCAs to extend the range, coverage, and persistence of the crewed jets. The scenario can be expanded to include the entire east coast of the United Kingdom, adding more Typhoons and CCAs as well as F-35Bs.

More detail was provided by Andrew ‘Blyty’ Mallery-Blythe, Typhoon Operational Requirements Manager at BAE Systems.

A huge advantage here is the new LAD cockpit, replacing the Typhoon’s current three-multifunction display (MFD) configuration with a single unit.

The Typhoon Large Area Display in a simulator. BAE Systems

Using the LAD means that “everything is available,” Blyty said. “You can see everything at the top level. You have to do very little manipulation to the display. The LAD provides a literal big picture of the combat scenario, including friendly assets, among them the various CCAs, with their heading, height, speed, and what they’re carrying in terms of sensors or stores.

“What we’re trying to take advantage of is combat mass,” Blyty added. “Obviously, combat mass I don’t really need to explain in any great detail. We’ve got four CCAs and two Typhoons. Clearly there’s an improvement and an increase in combat mass without having to have those additional very expensive, complex aircraft. We can bring more weapons to the fight through the use of the CCAs.”

While still a Royal Air Force pilot, Andrew ‘Blyty’ Mallery-Blythe completed an F-16 exchange with the 79th Fighter Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. John Gordinier Staff Sgt. John Gordinier

In terms of attrition, the Typhoon is classed as a strategic asset in these concepts, while a CCA is more of a tactical asset.

“We certainly don’t want to put ourselves in a position where we’re going to lose one of those [CCAs], but it’s a tactical asset,” Blyty continued. “That means that we can position them far closer to the threat, potentially taking a little bit more risk with those assets. They’re also smaller, they have a lower observability, and that is also an advantage that our friendly Typhoons exploit.”

A simulator is used to test the Typhoon/CCA crewed-uncrewed teaming concept. BAE Systems

Having a better overview of the battlespace via the LAD cockpit, ECRS Mk 2 radar, Striker II helmet, and the CCAs themselves is only one part of the equation.

BAE Systems is also trying to minimize the workload on the pilots. This is especially important for the U.K. Royal Air Force, which has reduced the number of two-seat Typhoons in its fleet, scrapping all its Tranche 1 ‘T-birds.’ Other nations are meanwhile working on developing CCA concepts by relying heavily on two-seat combat aircraft , with the back-seater a ‘drone controller.’

Blyty: “We don’t want to be in a situation where the pilot is having to close-control each of those assets. There’d be far too much workload. So through our rapid prototyping, and the way that we’ve been doing this, we’ve been looking into how we minimize that workload and how we give simple commands through the extant HOTAS [‘hands on throttle and stick’ controls] to send those CCAs to carry out our task with the minimum workload that we can achieve.” It is meanwhile widely understood that drones require an advanced autonomy package to facilitate this level of ease of use by a single pilot.

A Typhoon during a low-level flying sortie in the Lake District, United Kingdom. Mark Wright/BAE Systems Mark Wright/BAE Systems

Blyty went on to run through an engagement scenario, again aided by the LAD’s ‘god’s eye view’ of the battlespace. A kill box was drawn on the LAD before the hostile aircraft entered that area.

“Once that was activated — we do that through a button on the screen which is just off the top — we effectively give the CCAs the authorization or the command that they can engage anything that enters that kill box.”

With that command, the CCAs start employing weapons, including very long-range Meteor air-to-air missiles, the ramjet-powered weapon that the Typhoon also carries.

The aspiration to have CCAs armed with Meteor is a significant one, due to the very particular set of capabilities that the missile brings. The Meteor is among the longest-ranged of any Western air-to-air missile, generally considered to be able to engage certain types of targets out to around 130 miles. Critically, while CCAs are already a forward extension of the fighter, a missile of this kind would provide a major increase in engagement range when combined with the crewed jet, allowing the Typhoon to stay outside the engagement range of the enemy.

The missile also uses a two-way datalink, which feeds it with in-flight updates as it flies out to its target and provides the pilot in the launch aircraft with information on the Meteor’s fuel, energy, and tracking state. Adding CCAs into the mix, provided they have their own sensors, would allow them to pass data to the Typhoon and to the Meteor, regardless of which platform launched the missile.

Ultimately, of course, the CCAs might end up with different missiles entirely, including a successor to the Meteor that is now being developed . Regardless, air-to-air combat at extended ranges is very much part of the U.K.’s CCA thinking. Meanwhile, we are already seeing CCA-type aircraft firing beyond-visual-range missiles in tests in the United States and elsewhere .

In this particular scenario, Blyty said the Typhoons were at a distance of roughly 114 miles from the enemy.

“Let’s say that’s outside the range of Meteor,” Blyty continued, downplaying the likely true range of the missile, which is a closely guarded secret. “The CCAs, less than half that. Let’s say that’s within the range of Meteor. So, we’ve got a clear tactical advantage that those CCAs have over the Typhoons. They’re on a little bit more risk out there than the Typhoons are. But that’s entirely appropriate to how we manage those Typhoons with the ECRS Mk 2 as a more strategic asset, and we quarterback the CCAs as a more tactical asset.”

Blyty said that BAE Systems is working on a lot more features to minimize pilot workload, without providing more details.

Meanwhile, BAE Systems has been working alongside QinetiQ on crewed-uncrewed teaming in the air, with a synthetic trial in which a Typhoon, a swarm of QinetiQ Banshee drones, and a Malloy Aeronautics T-150 small heavy-lift uncrewed aerial system (UAS) were flown using current operational military datalinks including Link 16.

The Typhoon and drones involved in the synthetic trial with QinetiQ. BAE Systems

Clearly, concept demonstrations of how crewed combat aircraft could operate alongside CCAs, highlighting the role of crewed-uncrewed teaming in future air operations, are a high priority as the Typhoon continues to evolve. The United Kingdom has not exactly been quick to adopt the CAA concept, at least compared to the United States and China , but with uncrewed platforms very much at the forefront of the recent Defense Investment Plan , that looks like it is set to change.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

The post Typhoons Paired With CCA Fighter Drones Armed With Meteor Missiles Eyed By UK appeared first on TWZ .

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Cybersecurity risks in water infrastructure have consequences that reach far beyond systems and networks.

Across the sector, the systems responsible for treatment and distribution are becoming more connected. Pumps, sensors and control environments that once operated in isolation are now linked to wider networks, often in the name of efficiency or modernization.

The problem is that these systems were never built with continuous exposure to cyber threats in mind and connecting them has introduced new attack surfaces that are difficult to maintain visibility of and control.

At the same time, many facilities have crept towards an increasingly blurred line between IT and operational technology (OT). Driven by incremental needs and very practical limits on systemic refresh, these systems have been added to and grown more complex over time rather than being designed securely from the ground up.

As a result, they become more tightly interconnected, with access stretching further across networks and systems than it should. Once an attacker breaches a system, it becomes far easier to move laterally across the network and get closer to critical infrastructure.

Meanwhile, cyber threats continue to encroach on the water sector, with attacks becoming increasingly frequent and their potential impact is hard to ignore. Disruptions to drinking water treatment or control systems can quickly escalate, interrupting supply or affecting water quality and, in turn, the communities that depend on them.

Structural challenges in securing water systems

Securing water infrastructure is made more difficult by the operational realities many providers face. Technology environments have expanded over time, often without dedicated cybersecurity resources growing at the same pace, making it harder to maintain consistent oversight across increasingly ageing and disparate systems.

Many organizations are also balancing modern hyper-connected digital management expectations with the ongoing operation of originally isolated, long-established systems. This places additional pressure on teams responsible for maintaining both resilience and day-to-day continuity.

Another persistent challenge is the divide between IT and operational technology (OT) teams. Because these environments have traditionally evolved separately, with different design approaches, responsibilities, priorities and expertise, they are not always closely aligned, which can slow decision-making and create gaps in visibility during an incident.

In smaller providers, cybersecurity responsibilities may sit with operational staff whose primary expertise lies in running facilities rather than managing cyber risk. Larger organizations may have more specialized cyber teams, but greater separation between functions still introduces coordination challenges and the risk of operational blind spots.

Connectivity without constraint

The growing use of cloud computing platforms and remote access tools has brought clear operational advantages to critical infrastructure like water systems. However, it has also reinforced a default position of keeping systems online at all times, often without a genuine operational imperative for continuous connectivity.

This “always-connected” approach can unnecessarily increase exposure, particularly as more assets become reachable across wider networks. Without clear control over the time windows when systems need to be accessible, organizations may be creating more risk than expected, certainly more than is required.

A stronger, resilient approach starts with recognizing that security grows by making connectivity intentional. Not every system needs to remain online continuously, and limiting unnecessary access significantly improves security outcomes.

This can be achieved by creating stronger separation between critical systems and the wider network, using controls that allow connections to be enabled only when required while maintaining essential operations. In this model, connectivity is actively managed to define resilience on demand.

Containment as a first line of defense

In the event of a vulnerability or compromise, response speed is critical, notably in environments where interconnected systems enable threats to spread rapidly across the network. Without effective connection controls in place, attackers can exploit this unconstrained accessibility to extend their reach before a full response is underway.

The ability to isolate systems in real time helps change this state. Segmenting critical parts of the network helps limit lateral movement, and deeply segmenting down to high criticality digital elements enables organizations to contain threats far more substantially and focus their efforts on speeding up the incident response.

Having this level of control helps limit the spread of disruption and supports a more structured response. It also creates clear, demonstrable evidence of how risk is being managed - something that’s becoming increasingly important as regulatory scrutiny and cyber insurance requirements become more demanding.

Moving to controlled access

The most resilient model possible with physical connection control treats access to critical systems as fully conditional. Rather than keeping them permanently online, connections can be limited to where, when and why they are required for business reasons. As risk levels change, this can be refined or tightened at will.

This lowers both risk and potential impact, minimizing loss, while preserving the flexibility required for day-to-day operations.

For water providers, deliberately managing connectivity and segmenting networks at an infrastructure level should be a priority for resilience. Clearer boundaries and reduced unnecessary access make it easier to protect infrastructure that plays a vital role in public safety.

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The patient: A 6-year-old boy in the Netherlands

The symptoms: The child was receiving a blood transfusion as a treatment for lymphoblastic leukemia , a type of blood cancer that originates in bone marrow, when he experienced a severe allergic reaction. His blood pressure dropped, and he developed a rash. Swelling appeared around his lips, tongue and eyelids, and he had difficulty breathing. This type of allergic response, known as anaphylaxis , can be life-threatening.

What happened next: Doctors treated the patient with the hormone epinephrine (also called adrenaline), which quickly reduces tissue swelling caused by anaphylaxis while also raising blood pressure and easing restricted breathing. The child recovered after about 30 minutes.

His doctors collected blood samples immediately after the reaction, and these contained unusually high levels of a type of protein called mast-cell tryptase , which is released by certain immune cells during anaphylaxis. However, the physicians were puzzled as to what had caused the extreme reaction, they wrote in a report of the case .

The diagnosis: The patient's mother told the doctors that her child had a similar allergic response to peanuts when he was about 1 year old, and since then, they'd omitted peanuts from his diet. The doctors then contacted the five blood donors who had provided the boy's most recent transfusion, and they learned that three of the five donors had eaten handfuls of peanuts the evening before they donated blood.

A protein in peanuts called Ara h2 is one of the main allergens that set off allergic reactions in people's immune systems. One of the building blocks of the allergen, called DRP-Ara h2, takes more than 24 hours to digest and remains capable of binding to receptors and triggering an allergic response throughout that time.

To see if this allergen could have played a role in the patient's reaction, the doctors performed another blood test that detects antibodies and is used for identifying allergic sensitivities. The test confirmed that the patient was allergic to peanuts and that antibodies against Ara h2 and DRP-Ara h2m were present in his blood post-infusion. These antibodies would have been produced in response to Ara h2 entering the bloodstream.

"These data are consistent with the hypothesis that the consumption of peanuts by the donors before blood donation provided the trigger for this patient's transfusion reaction," the doctors reported.

The treatment: The patient didn't require any further treatment after the epinephrine that was administered immediately to reverse anaphylaxis.

What makes the case unique: Allergic reactions during blood transfusions are rare, although estimates of their exact frequency vary. Some estimates suggest that they occur in about 0.001% to 0.006% of transfusions, while others find they occur in 0.1% of transfusions .

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The triggers that set off these allergic responses are seldom identified. Prior to this case, other researchers suggested that blood transfusions could passively transfer food allergens from the donor to the recipient. Indeed, a growing body of evidence suggests that this may be more common than expected .

The child's response highlights the importance of identifying food allergies in people receiving blood transfusions, the child's doctors concluded, as well as the necessity of reviewing blood donors' recent diet histories to screen for potential allergens that could affect sensitive recipients.

"It is possible that allergens transferred in blood products to other patients have led to reactions that have gone unexplained and unreported," the doctors wrote in the case report.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

Can you guess the diagnosis in these strange medical cases? Find out with our diagnostic dilemma quiz!

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In raptures over Chapman’s Homer, Keats forgets

who discovered the Pacific—not stout Cortez

with eagle eyes but Balboa upon a peak in Darien.

Where he withdrew his handkerchief and saw

the death warrant drop of arterial blood,

a fate too deep for tears. Years, I was afraid

someone would refer to you in past tense,

and I’d sink like an animal past the dream

of evolution clean into disrepair. You lived—

this wasn’t that sort of tragedy. More like

a fairground after rain where heavy tents

had gauged large crevices. Franz said the silences

need to be loved, perhaps more than the words

that describe them in time. The dog cries

because it sets the human world in motion,

and I rise to stop the wailing, accusative at times.

__________________________________

Excerpted from If You Love That Lady: Poems . Copyright (c) 2026 by Maya C. Popa. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

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It has been a celebratory week for Final Fantasy fans as the beloved RPG's tenth installment marks the 25th anniversary of its original Japanese release. Developed by Square (then known internationally as SquareSoft), the 10th main entry in the Final Fantasy series launched for PlayStation 2 in Japan on July 19, 2001, before arriving in North America on December 18 of the same year. Entering development in 1999, this particular Final Fantasy game was a landmark release for the franchise , introducing full voice acting, dynamic facial animations, and fully realized 3D character and environment rendering.